I’ve written an overview of the Livewire story over on the TPNx blog (which is where I’m talking about social media things). I think it shows one way that social media can break a story and, more importantly perhaps, keep the story alive.
On G’Day World Live this week my guest was Fi Bendall from Bendalls Group. Fi is one of Australia’s best known digital strategists who has worked with clients from MTV to Amnesty. She came on to chat about how social media is challenging corporate cultures in Australia and what needs to happen before those companies will be ready to embrace things like Twitter. You can follow Fi on Twitter.
G’Day World Live broadcasts every Tuesday evening, 8pm AEST. Join in the fun! Lately it’s been running for about four hours – I play guitar and we talk about all the things you’re not supposed to talk about in polite company – from politics to religion, sex, social media and single malt whisky.
And finally, please support TPN’s April drive! We need your support!
If you want to keep TPN on the air, please show your support. If just the listeners of this show contributed $20 a month, I could fund TPN indefinitely! Is the information and entertainment you get from TPN worth a bottle of cheap wine?
As some of you know, the main source of my income at the moment is producing podcasts for companies and government departments. Check this site for the basic pitch. I can produce podcasts for anyone anywhere in the world. Obviously video podcasts are limited to where I can get with my camera, but I’ve been recording audio interviews with international guests since 2004.
Who needs a podcast? Anyone in:
– Marketing
– PR
– HR
– Training
– Internal Comms
Especially in this time of financial tightening, podcasting is a tool more companies should be using. It’s a very cost-effective way to reach the key members of your audience on a weekly basis. And, of course, if you’re going to produce social media, you should work with someone who has actually some experience producing media for large audiences and isn’t just all talk.
There are a few different kinds of podcasts my clients tend to be using at the moment:
1. The External “Transparency” podcast – this kind of podcast aims to make a client more accessible to their clients. It can be either video or audio and involves me doing interviews with people inside the company about what they (and their division) actually do. This typically suits a very large org that wants to soften or humanise it’s image. The strategy is that their clients/customers will subscribe to the podcast to get a better understanding of what each of the divisions is working on and how best to engage with them.
2. The External “Value-Add” podcast – this kind of podcast usually has content completely unrelated to the actual services and products of the org, but which is designed to be valuable to the target audience. Typically it might involve interviews with world leaders in the same field. Each podcast is wrapped with an audio or video header and footer, “This podcast is brought to you by….”, to keep the client’s message and brand in front of their audience every week.
3. The Internal Management podcast – this podcast involves video or audio interviews with members of the management team (CEO, CFO, COO, HR Director, etc) on a regular basis to go out to the employees via their intranet. It allows the senior leadership of an org to efficaciously communicate business updates with their teams around the country and world on a weekly basis and in a personable manner. It might also involved interviews with employees throughout the business. Who are they? What do they do? What is their focus? This is a great tool for encouraging cross-collaboration in large orgs.
4. The External Product/Service podcast – this podcast has to be handled cleverly. Most people aren’t going to subscribe to a podcast that’s just a marketing vehicle UNLESS it’s actually cool and informative or very funny. Often the best way to handle this kind of podcast is to get your customers involved. Get THEM talking about or demonstrating your products and services. Make it about THEM, not about you.
Demographics: There’s a common misconception that podcast audiences are still only the young tech savvy folks. While this was probably true back in 2004/5, it certainly isn’t any longer. The success of Apple’s iPods and iPhones, combined with the marketing of podcasts by mainstream media like the ABC, has actually skewed the demographic to a 40+ audience (according to the surveys I run on TPN’s audience each year).
So, here’s how you can help – if you know of anyone who might be interested in using my services, make sure you point them in my direction. In addition, if you email me the names, email addresses and telephone numbers of the people in your company that fulfill the above roles, I’ll contact them directly and give them the pitch (ideally using you as a point of introduction but, if you’re not comfortable with that, I’ll leave your name out of it).
Here are my contact details to make it easy:
Cameron Reilly
CEO, The Podcast Network
tel: +61 400455334
email: cameron@thepodcastnetwork.com
Thanks for your support!
On today’s show I’m joined by Sophie Peer, China Campaign Co-ordinator for Amnesty International, Fi Bendall from the Bendall Group, and Ben Barren, social media baron, to discuss the online campaign Amnesty have run over the last 3 weeks to raise awareness of China’s human rights record. The campaign asked Australian bloggers to unite and support their Chinese counterparts who have been banned, blocked, denied and imprisoned by the Chinese government for using the Internet to express their right to freedom of speech. The destination site for the campaign was UNCENSOR.com.au. The other site they recommend on the show is Stilgherrian’s blog.
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The G’Day World theme music:
Conquest
“Secrets of Life” (mp3)
from “End of Days”
(Dark Star Records)
Newspapers, a 19th century global social networking craze, could cost employers up to $5 billion a year in productivity.
The persistence of the “offline internet” in workplaces has resulted in more time-wasting by employees.
It could also open businesses to criminals and legal liability, analysis by internet security firm TPN says.
The data found if one employee spent an hour a day of company time reading newspapers, it could cost their employer more than $6200 a year.
Projected across the 800,000 businesses with one or more employees in Australia, this one wasted hour a day equalled productivity losses of more than $5 billion a year.
There are more than 2 million newspaper readers across the country, with reportedly more than 100 Australians joining the phenomenon each hour.
With many readers reading during work hours, productivity loss was not the only drawback, TPN CEO Cameron Reilly said.
“Criminals will no doubt be targeting newspaper readers as an attack mechanism because of (its) popularity and power as a platform,” Reilly said.
“It’s only a matter of time before a security loophole is discovered and exploited.”
Many companies were placing blanket bans on newspapers, created by some old rich white guy in 1786.
But account director Joan Smith from marketing communications agency Haypizzle, whose employees were reading newspapers, said the phenomena had reshaped the media landscape and was now regarded as a powerful business tool.
“It’s important for a marketing communications agency to be on the pulse with new and emerging social media platforms such as The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The New York Times,” Ms Smith said.
“Newspapers like The New York Times enable us to connect with our clients, media representatives and our 40 plus staff in our Sydney and Melbourne offices.”
Despite newspaper’s negative side, Reilly said it could also be a boon for business.
“A lot of enlightened employers are encouraging newspaper reading as part of the working experience because it makes people want to be at work longer,” he said.
“There needs to be awareness and education on the part of the employer as to what is the appropriate level of use.”
(This is a satirical post pointing out the level of bullshit being spread about Facebook by sites like News.com.au – link)
